2025 is officially here, which means it’s time for Goodreads’ reading challenge! Last year I planned for 60 books and ended up reading 67. I might be a bit ambitious, but I’m aiming for 70 books this year! Now, I normally read young adult books (obviously), but I did have a fair amount of adult reads this year and was surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed some of them. I’m sure 2025’s books will bring a mix of audiences and I’m very curious to see what titles end up being my favorites. I’d like to do a wrap-up of my favorite YA books below and you can find some of these on the bookstore’s website!

This year is almost at a close, which is absolutely wild to think about. If you told me at the beginning of this year that by the end of it I would own my own bookstore, I would’ve been shocked.

I started 2024 by working at the same job I had for almost six years in the hybrid publishing space. I loved parts of it like choosing which submissions we took on and helping authors achieve their dream of being published. But the past year was especially hard and it seemed like no matter what I did, my job kept getting harder. I was incredibly stressed, unhappy, and felt stuck. Between January and March I applied for a few new jobs, even got an offer, but decided to stick it out in my current position for a bit longer because…we were getting a puppy!

It’s the first holiday season for The Reading Chamber! I’ll admit, it was a little daunting trying to figure out what sales to offer and when. Some stores start before Black Friday and have deals all November long, but I knew I wanted to kick off holiday shopping with Black Friday as the first day. I decided to do a variety of different sales to appeal to different readers!

One of the things they don’t tell you when you start your own business is that you have to be a content creator to gain traction. Most of my day is now spent filming videos for TikTok and Instagram Reels, scheduling Facebook posts, and trying to figure out algorithms to reach the targeted audience. I of course expected to work on marketing and that it would take up a lot of my time, but I didn’t expect to be glued to my phone.

Now that November is here, I can officially say the bookstore opened last month! It’s pretty surreal to think about and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact I actually own a bookstore.
There were many things I learned within the last few weeks and still so much I don’t know. I had no idea how to track any analytics or how long a book might take to arrive once it’s ordered. I discovered that promoting an online store is hard, but that I’ve gotten a good response and I know I’m on the right track. I’m currently taking a masterclass on content creation with the hope of bringing more awareness to the website without paying for additional advertising and I’m earning an SEO certificate (if I ever find time to sit down and complete the course).